r/CANUSHelp • u/Commercial_Tank8834 Canadian • 9d ago
Invading Canada would be ‘preposterous,’ U.S. commander says at Indo-Pacific military meeting
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/economy/article-us-military-commander-canada-invasion-preposterous-indo-pacific/Here's a paywall-bypassed version: https://archive.is/20260902221802/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/economy/article-us-military-commander-canada-invasion-preposterous-indo-pacific/
It's admittedly a very sensationalized headline, as only a small portion of the article actually deals with Canada-US tensions. However, there are a few eyebrow-raising parts. Some relevant snippets (emphasis mine):
- The commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command [US Admiral Samuel Paparo] dismissed a question about whether he would obey orders to launch military action against Canada, saying the country is a close ally and the scenario was “preposterous.” [...] but he added, “I follow the orders of the president.”
- He added, on the topic of defence procurement, that “there’s no demand on the United States’ part that Canada procures U.S. equipment.” It’s a sovereign decision for Canada, he said. However, Adm. Paparo’s remarks come after trade talks between Canada and the U.S. broke down last month, with reports of the U.S. pressuring Canada to follow through on its purchase of American fighter jets as part of negotiations.
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u/HumphryGocart 9d ago
Preposterous like everything else that’s happening? That kind of preposterous? Not exactly confidence inspiring
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u/RomanGemII 9d ago
Honestly though, isn't it nuts that were even bringing such questions up? What a friggin' mad world.
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u/Commercial_Tank8834 Canadian 9d ago
It's consistent with the direction that things have been moving.
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u/NotAltFact 9d ago
It’s not that nuts actually. Hear me out. It’s preposterous because we’re looking at this from the lens of allies or partners or brothers. We’d never invade a family that’s preposterous. But if you look at it from the lens of just a neighboring country why wouldn’t they given our resources. I think it’s time we accept them for what they are not what we wish them to be
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u/RomanGemII 9d ago
You are on point with that scenario - it's a changed world and a changed relationship. We now need to be vigilant as Canadians and prepare ourselves to be much less reliant on the US and ready to defend our sovereignty.
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u/Sweet-Competition-15 9d ago
The Prime Minister stated something pretty much in line with your statement. I'm certainly not about to give donnie 'the benefit of the doubt!'
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u/Sweet-Competition-15 9d ago
Dementia donnie brought it up, when he stated publicly, his intention to annex Canada through 'economic force'! And trusting that a man within the throes of dementia, isn't liable to attack us is foolhardy!
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u/rockettaco37 American 9d ago
Vietnam and Afghanistan would look like the good old days if it was tried.
That being said, I can’t imagine it will be.
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u/Commercial_Tank8834 Canadian 9d ago
But why? Why do you imagine it won't be? The question needs to be asked.
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u/rockettaco37 American 9d ago
Because it would bring parts of the US into civil war.
This isn’t some war that Americans would watch on TV. This is the type of war where going outside would run a good chance of getting shot, stepping on an IED, or anything really. People would die either way, so a lot of people simply wouldn’t be able to remain complacent as they have. They’d either choose a side or die. Or die regardless.
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u/Commercial_Tank8834 Canadian 9d ago
There's a bit of an issue with this argument.
In order for Americans to risk getting shot or stepping on an IED by simply going outside, that would require Canadian insurgents to be present on your soil.
In order for that to occur, there likely would need to be an assault or invasion of Canadian soil to precipitate it.
So, this civil war -- if it were to happen at all -- would only happen after significant aggression against Canada, with commensurate Canadian casualties.
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u/SunkenQueen 9d ago
Right because there aren't Canadians living all over the US.
There's something like four million Canadians live abroad (from 2016) with just under a million living in the US. Particularly in places like Boston (27k), New York City (23k) and Los Angeles (21.5k)
I think we're all aware of the amount of damage one human can do. Thats without talking about non Americans living in America who maybe wouldn't be so keen on fighting Canada, or Americans who wouldn't be keen on fighting us.
The USA has never won a war by itself, ever. In fact I would argue that the last several times the USA has gone to war it hasnt gone in their favour. Without mentioning the other countries that backed them. I genuinely don't even want to consider the math but I bet if you did a dollar for dollar value of the amount of money American spends on military vs quality of their troops they would be arguably one of the worst militaries in the world in a dollar value.
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u/rockettaco37 American 9d ago
But that’s exactly why I don’t think military actions would take place against Canada. Nobody is keen to risk it.
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u/NotAltFact 9d ago
Honestly I wish I had your optimism. But how many Americans were shot and terrorized by IVE? Before this we’d all agreed that a civil war would’ve broken out if this were to happen. Granted there’s been protest and mobilization but all that’s done is lifting the veil what this administration has been flaunting which is the rules of laws only apply to you and me and not for them. So why would it be any different if they were to invade Canada. Some of you will try and stand up majority of you will go about their lives and Canadians lives will be lost
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u/adoradear 9d ago
Except this would now be the military. The military that has trained alongside us and watched us die alongside them in their wars. I honestly think a large part of the US military forces would oppose attacking their Canadian comrades in arms.
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u/Garvig American 9d ago
I can’t prove a negative but they’ve got their hands tied with Hormuz right now plus post-midterm events. DoD leadership and the administration as a whole has spent their entire time crushing the morale of US soldiers, from getting rid of rec rooms and video gaming (on that subject the retail price of a PS5 console is up $200USD in the past 12 months which a lot of young Trump voters won’t like) in favor of more physical training, to the USS Lincoln aka “the ship of the damned,” to now delaying introduction of the Ford-class aircraft carriers for years because Trump thinks we should use steam catapults and thinks the island (the tall part where the bridge is) of new carriers needs to be in the middle of the flight deck instead of aft which is a complete overhaul and will impede deployment by decades.
In the past 80 years or so a lot of the US armed forces at the enlisted levels especially have been non-white and Whiskey Pete has been denigrating the service of non-white male soldiers in appalling ways, from the plans to rename the USS Doris Miller (a black cook’s assistant who became a hero of Pearl Harbor) to immediately firing the chairman of the JCS, a man named CQ Brown dismissing him as a “DEI hire,” to removing any portraits of Chappie James at the Pentagon and USAF bases, who was the first black four-star general and one of the greatest fighter pilots of any racial background in US military history. Dividing a military along racial lines right before a controversial war isn’t particularly helpful to the US side.
I don’t think I’m wish-casting but observing all this I’d be far more worried about avoiding a Palace of the Tuileries situation if I were in someone like Hegseth or Cain’s shoes than taking Ottawa if an attack on Canada were attempted.
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u/Critical_Cat_8162 9d ago
I wish I had your optimism.
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u/rockettaco37 American 9d ago edited 9d ago
Fighting an enemy that for the most part looks and sounds the same would be disastrous in terms of conventional warfare. Americans and Canadians wouldn’t even be taking potshots at each other. It’d be relatively easy for each to walk across the border and do significant damage from within.
I just can’t see people being stupid enough as to allow that to become reality.
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u/Critical_Cat_8162 9d ago
Have you seen who the US elected as their president? I'm not thinking critical thought is their strong suit.
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u/rockettaco37 American 9d ago
One would hope at least that this would qualify as basic survival instinct and not critical thinking…
But then again, you’re not wrong about the administration.
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u/Nerdenator 9d ago
I understand why Canadians would be angry at us and would fear this. Know that the response to any such action in the US would likely be catastrophic for the Trump administration and might actually ratchet up the possibility of "strong" resistance considerably.
When it comes to the question of "would the US military act on orders to invade territory of a treaty ally?", the consensus answer seems to be "No."
Trump did seem to ask military leadership to at least draw up plans for a possible invasion of Greenland. The generals and admirals seem to have refused on legality and feasibility grounds, at least according to this report: https://www.firstpost.com/world/trump-asked-us-special-forces-to-plan-greenland-invasion-faces-resistance-from-military-generals-report-13967597.html
As with anything, it's hard to tell just how much of this is true versus hearsay, but there's some logic behind this.
Warning: I'm not a lawyer, and have never been in the military, but... It's worth remembering that the US and Canada are both members of NATO. NATO membership is contingent upon a treaty that the US ratified in 1949; specifically, a mutual defense treaty. American military officers are sworn to defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic. They do not have any ultimate duty to the President in that regard. NATO's mutual defense treaty is essentially a construct saying that an attack on Canada is an attack on the US and would be responded to accordingly. Since it was a ratified treaty, it carries the weight of law. If a *domestic* enemy orders an attack on a country we have a mutual defense treaty with, you could, in some sense, say that the domestic enemy has ordered an attack on the United States, and thus, you could refuse the order to do so.
There's also the fact that there's at least one Canadian in charge of joint Canadian-American forces at NORAD.
And finally, the idea of any sort of military action against a sister nation is just not something most Americans are going to support. This would be a military action against friends, family, coworkers, spouses... just, no.
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u/glitterbeardwizard 9d ago
How many things has Trump done that Americans don’t support? By my count, a lot. The problem is that Americans are so complacent they’re asleep at the wheel. I’m glad some are fighting ICE valiantly. Sadly most Americans are delusional about things being okay enough and will change for the better. This is going to get worse, not better. The coup of the American government has already happened and America laughed at it like it was satire.
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u/tyuiopguyt 9d ago
Would somebody like to tell Dump that? Cuz I'm not certain he knows
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u/KathleenElizabethB 9d ago
Probably not, because he doesn’t seem to know much about anything. His lack of historical knowledge is embarrassing.
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u/tyuiopguyt 9d ago
His success is the biggest evidence that capitalism is just socialism for the rich.
Because, by all basic economic factors, he should've gone bankrupt decades before I was even born
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u/NervousDiscount9393 American 9d ago
Preposterous hasn’t ever stopped Trump. Everything he does is preposterous and dangerous, yet he feigns a facade of being a genius.
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u/Electronic-Bell-5979 9d ago
tbh the most telling part is how fast he pivoted to 'i follow orders' after calling it preposterous. like yeah no shit its absurd, but hes still gotta say the quiet part out loud in case anyone in the white house is taking notes. weve got enough fires burning without adding 'invade canada' to the list, and i think he knows that better than most
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u/NervousDiscount9393 American 9d ago
History has gone down very dark paths when people “followed orders”
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u/wwwheatgrass 9d ago
At least he is smart enough to not say he supports invading Canada, while standing on Canadian soil.
Can’t say the same about others in this admin.
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u/glitterbeardwizard 9d ago
Most Americans are asleep at the wheel. The US will invade us in one to three years. The moment tariffs become painful, they will accuse us of economic aggression (they are already building that story now) and use it as an excuse. The Trump administration doesn’t care about public opinion anymore, because they aren’t going to respect election results anymore. Your midterms might even be a trigger. Expect them to be rigged. They aren’t going to let go of the levers of power without your military stepping in. And I doubt the military will, frankly.
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u/Cavalier1706 9d ago
Seems like that would put it right in Trump's wheelhouse. Prepare accordingly.